01x06 - What Death Can Join Together

Episode transcripts for the 2014 TV show "Penny Dreadful". Aired May 11, 2014 - June 19, 2016.*
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Explorer Sir Malcolm Murray, American gunslinger Ethan Chandler, and others unite to combat supernatural threats in Victorian London.
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01x06 - What Death Can Join Together

Post by bunniefuu »

MALCOLM: Previously on Penny Dreadful...

What does it say to you?

Open your lips.

Taste.

DORIAN: To the most mysterious thing in London...

Miss Vanessa Ives.

I need blood, you f*cking devil whore!

FRANKENSTEIN: Professor Van Helsing.

Hematophagy, the eating of blood.

Sir Malcolm is looking for a cure for something he doesn't understand.

Do you?

Intimately.

Do what you have promised me.

I will need supplies.

Then find them.

CREATURE: My bride must be beautiful.

ETHAN: What's going on?

You're f*cking a skeleton every night.

There's no future in it for either of us.

You want to watch me die? (COUGHING)

MINA: The master has taught me much.


Things no one should ever know.

Save me from him.

Please.

(SCREAMING)

VANESSA: Mina needs our help.

Will you let me in?

ETHAN: How far do we go?

There is no going back from this moment.

I'm with you.

(SNARLING)

(YELLS)

(CHOKING)



(BELL TOLLING)

VANESSA: And you think it was the creature we seek?

I would assume so.

I mean, how many of them can there be?

They do rather stand out.

I can't stay in this foul room.

Did you sense anything last night?

No.

Can you try?

I can't summon these things up.

It was in this house. In your room!

For God's sake, do something!

You don't think I'm trying?

Leave me alone.

Have you forgotten Mina?

Have you forgotten why we're doing any of this?

I've lost my family!

I lost my family too. Have you forgotten that?

(SIGHS)

I'll try.

(SIGHS)

(COUGHING)

(DOOR OPENING)

(COUGHING VIOLENTLY)

(BREATHING HEAVILY)

Where've you been all night?

I went out with Mr. Gray.

He's a devil, that one.

I'm so sorry about last night.

I was waspish cruel outside the theater, and for no good reason.

(COUGHING)

(BREATHING HEAVILY)

I deserved a lot worse.

I still do.

Oh, Ethan, will you not forgive yourself?

We've all sinned.

No one knows that better than me, but you're a good, true man for all that...

For all that.

I love you with all my heart.

And I you.

MINA: (WHISPERING) Vanessa.

Help me.


(WATER FLOWING)

(BELL DINGS)

(DECK CREAKING)

(GROWLING)

(MAN SCREAMING)

(CRUNCHING)

(PEOPLE SCREAMING)

(SNARLING)

(SCREAMING CONTINUES)

(SIGHS)

I don't know.

What did you find?

It's unclear, like an echo already passed.

But two of the cards suggested a ship or something to do with the river trade.

And something terrible happening on the ship.

The port of London, do you think?

(DOOR OPENING)

Likely so.

SIR MALCOLM: I'll check the shipping registry to see what I can discover.

SEMBENE: Sir Malcolm.

Mr. Gray, please come in.

Thank you.

I've come to make amends to Miss Ives for leaving the theater last night without making my apologies.

Oh, that's not necessary.

In that case, would you like to have an adventure?

You mean... now?

Is there any other time?

(STUTTERS) I'm terribly sorry, but I'm engaged currently.

Oh, by all means, you must go.

The air will do you good.

Well then, yes, Mr. Gray, I should like an adventure.

Let me get my coat.

I hope you don't mind me stealing Miss Ives for a bit.

At your pleasure, sir.

She is always her own creature, our Miss Ives.

(DOOR CLOSES)

(FOOTSTEPS APPROACHING)

(SLICING)

(CLATTERING)

MAUD: Hello?

(FOOTSTEPS APPROACHING)

Hello?

(EQUIPMENT RATTLES)

I've never been down here.

It's like a whole different world.

Very close it is.

I've brought my blood tube.

It's getting clogged and, um...

I'll, um...

I'll fix it for you.

You've a great many books.

Passes the time, ma'am.

(BLOWS)

You know my name.

Aren't we family here?

Yes.

Maud Gunnison.

Thank you.

My brother was in an accident, you see.

Back in Newcastle.

It was a steam engine on a ship.

Exploded.

He was b*rned.

After that happened, he always looked away, like you do.

I missed seeing his face, my brother.

His name is Lucifer.

Yes, I know, but it's not like that.

It actually means "Bringer of the light".

Or something like that.

I don't read much, so I don't really know.

We call him Luke in any case.

Uh...

Thank you for your help.

(BREATHING RAPIDLY)

(FOOTSTEPS APPROACHING)

Well, the autopsy revealed nothing out of the ordinary beyond signs of malnutrition and incipient anemia.

Whatever young Fenton was, he wasn't entirely preternatural.

But he had the power to summon the creature.

Yes.

I imagine it's rather like bats with echolocation, a communication we cannot see, but exists.

I shall discuss it with Professor Van Helsing.

Very good. Let me know what you discover.

And you?

Educating myself on matters nautical.

FRANKENSTEIN: To what end?

Possibly undertaking another hunting expedition.

Oh. When?

You will not be required, Doctor.

Good day.

(BRIEFCASE LOCK CLICKS)

(DOOR CLOSES)

I have been thinking about your daughter.

And?

Say you find her, but say she cannot be saved.

If I find her, she will be saved.

No.

For all the blood we share, for the miles we have walked, Malcolm, we are not the same.

Where I come from, we know some people cannot be saved.

Say your daughter is one of them.

What then?

Know what you are going to do.

This is my first time.

DORIAN: Oh, I envy you that.

How it is you've never been photographed?

It's funny, actually.

I've a bit of a resistance to it.

Then why did you agree?

You seem a man born to overcome resistance.

There are those native tribes who believe you give away something of your soul when you're photographed.

Perhaps you do.

And what will you do with this little bit of my soul?

Protect it.

And you...

Have you been photographed much?

I prefer paintings.

Photographs are so ironically impermanent.

They capture one moment in time to perfection.

A painting can capture eternity.

I've never been painted, I couldn't say.

But you do understand eternity, I know that.

The workings of time.

(ADJUSTING CAMERA EQUIPMENT)

All right, ma'am.

Uh, please hold very still.

There'll be a flash of the powder.

Try not to react.

You may look at the camera or look away, ma'am.

It's up to you.

It is for eternity after all.

Your choice.

(CAMERA FLASHES)

(DOOR OPENS)

Hello, darling.

What's that?

I think a love token.

SIMON: Do I have a rival?

(CLOSES BOOK)

Hardly.

(KICKS)

(DOOR CLOSES)

(KISSING)

(CREATURE SOBBING)

(CREATURE MOANING)

(CONTINUES MOANING)

(BOTH LAUGHING)

Thank you for the most unexpected afternoon.

My pleasure.

And how will you spend the rest of your day?

Ruminating.

Well, good afternoon then.

Mr. Gray...

Do you have plans for dinner?

Not anymore.

(INDISTINCT CONVERSATIONS)

VAN HELSING: My young friend.

Ah...

Professor Van Helsing.

Thank you for coming.

Oh, I have known my great love.

My Hannah, God bless her. And you?

I was cursed with poetry very young.

It creates extremely unrealistic expectations.

It will happen.

You cannot live only in your work.

My work is...

Preoccupying.

I was much the same.

Uh, never looking up from the cadaver.

I imagined that I was content.

And then one day I'm having lunch.

Bent over my anatomy books, I looked up and there she was.

A pale blue dress with embroidered flowers.

So, look up, my friend.

Our work cannot control us.

We must control it.

If only we could.

There are times when we are compelled.

And what compels you?

Do you believe in fate?

Deeply.

I don't mean justice.

I mean retribution.

I mean facing the consequences of your actions that have produced catastrophe.

A sin that is everlasting.

One that you have made immortal.

(EXHALES)

There is a... A line from Shelley that haunts me. A single line from Adonais. I cannot get it out of my head.

"No more let Life divide what Death can join together"

Will you tell me your story?

One day, my good friend.

One day.

Oh.

Go on, show us the whole picture.
You look beautiful.

Thank you.

And what are your plans?

Oh, I'm bound to the ledger, I'm afraid.

The Geographic Society is becoming concerned about the cost of the expedition.

Enjoy your evening, my dear.

(STAMMERS) It's not too...

It's perfect.

(LOADING REVOLVER)

(BRONA BREATHING RAGGEDLY)

(BELL TOLLING IN DISTANCE)

You sleep.

(SPINNING CYLINDER)

How am I to sleep with you running around God knows where of an evening?

Don't worry about me.

I've been through worse.

Why, back in America... I used to fight 10 redskins before breakfast.

I know, I know, you great heroic man, you. (SIGHS)

Stay there for a moment. Let me look at you.

(CHUCKLES)

Best you didn't kiss me anymore.

Keep a safe distance. (SIGHS DEEPLY)

Too late for that.

And if you get sick?

Then you'll take care of me.

The medal around my neck.

(SNIFFS)

Would you wear it for me tonight?

St. Jude.

Patron saint of causes long since lost.

For me.

(BRONA SWALLOWS)

(SIGHS)

(HORN BLOWING IN DISTANCE)

SIR MALCOLM: Thank you for meeting us.

Where's Miss Ives?

She's not with us tonight.

And why is that?

Another time.

Come, we have a distance to walk.

ETHAN: Wait.

First tell me what we're doing here.

We're going to explore a plague ship.

Come this way.

You asked me once if Sir Malcolm knew what he was seeking.

He does not.

Not fully.

God grant that he shall never know.

Of what I am about to tell you, we cannot enlighten him.

Why not?

Because the truth is unendurable.

My late wife, Hannah, she of the pale blue dress with the embroidered flowers, she did not succumb to a disease precisely.

Of what did she succumb?

I drove a stake through her heart and cut off her head.

You're brooding, Mr. Chandler.

It's Miss Croft.

She's not well.

Ah.

Have you considered an institution?

I went to take a look at one.

It was a prison with people in big rooms waiting to die.

Do you hold out hope for her end?

I hold out dignity.

I would pay for a private asylum in the country.

I appreciate that.

We'll stay at home.

She will need opiates before long, for the pain.

She will cease being who she is.

Then I'll love who she becomes.

Berth 17 is ahead.

Why this ship?

It came from Cairo four months ago and has been in quarantine since, for what they're vaguely describing as

"typhus or an unknown foreign disease".

You recall the hieroglyphic tattoos we discovered?

Those were Egyptian.

That, and the fact the ship's in quarantine, is suggestive.

Of what?

Chicanery.

I'll serve.

I'm jealous of your company.

I fell under the sway of the Fabians for a period, only ate vegetables.

It was hell.

And their philosophy?

It was... diverting, but I've been through so many.

Transcendentalism, utilitarianism, Aestheticism, Ludditism, Taoism, socialism.

That didn't stick.

Seeking what? Happiness?

They all made me equally happy.

Meaning they all left you equally unhappy.

(CHUCKLES)

And religion?

You mean God?

For the sake of argument, let's say I do.

I like the ritual of church, I suppose.

Especially Catholicism.

And you?

I have a complicated history with the Almighty.

I think, Mr. Gray, there are, um, tremors around us.

Like the vibrations of a note of music, hidden music.

Some might be more attuned to them than others.

What do those people do, those who have been chosen?

They endure uniqueness.

(CHUCKLES)

To be alien.

To be disenfranchised from those around you.

Is that not a dreadful curse?

To be different.

To be powerful.

Is that not a divine gift?

To be alone.

To be seeking.

What?

Another.

Like you.

Who shares your rarity.

Then you are no longer unique.

Nor are you alone.

(BELL TOLLING IN DISTANCE)

Do you know the word "vampire"?

No.

It is not familiar to you in some way?

I don't believe so.

Nor to many others.

Aside from a small percentage of the reading public with a taste in a certain kind of literature.

FRANKENSTEIN: A penny dreadful?

One in particular.

As literature it is uninspiring, but as folklore from the Balkans popularized, it is not without merit.

Mr. Rymer missed the facts, but he caught the truth.

There is on this earth a creature that exceeds what is commonly known as the limits of life and death.

This creature feeds on the blood of the living and can have transformative effects on those upon which it preys.

When you are marked by this creature, there is only death, a walking death or a somnolent obeisance.



VANESSA: Are they not unnerving? Always looking at you.

I like to be looked at.

Not I.

Yet you wear that dress.

That was for your eyes.

(SOFTLY) All portraits.

DORIAN: I'm sorry?

They're all portraits.

You have no landscapes or still lives.

DORIAN: Are not people the most mysterious things?

VANESSA: I wish they were more so sometimes.

The glance that gives away the game.

The change in body posture.

And what do I give away?

Nothing.

What sort of music would you like?

Meaning who do I want to be at this moment.

Dorian Gray, who do you want to be?

Myself, without limits.

Then put on music for dancing.

(DOOR CLOSES)

(PLACING NEEDLE)



You have exceptional composure.

Do I?

Poise, I mean.

Control.

Yes.

What if you were to abandon it?

I couldn't.

Why?

There are things within us all that can never be unleashed.

And what would happen if they were?

They would consume us.

We would cease to be and another would exist in our place, without control.

Without limits.

May I kiss your neck?

Don't ask permission.

If you want to do a thing, do it because it is your desire, not my allowance.

You must risk rejection.

(INHALES)

You have experience with such a monster?

You know I do.

They move in a pack, like wolves.

Never staying in the same place long for fear of discovery.

When we come close, they are gone.

To what end?

You mean their goal?

I don't know.

What is any animal's goal?

Survival, propagation, conquest.

Conquest?

Who can say?

When we get near, they slip away, taking our most beloved with them, too fast to comprehend motive.

(SPEAKING GERMAN)

For the dead travel fast.

(WATER RUNNING)

It's not her.

(SIR MALCOLM EXHALES)

SIR MALCOLM: She must be here somewhere.

(SQUEAKING)

Why have you told me this?

Because you would have come to the same place without me.

And then?

You would have pursued it.

And that I would have had to prevent.

If I had a son, I would wish him a long and easy life.

I think your life will not be easy, but it should be long.

Mine is practically over.

If I seek demons and in the chase am destroyed, no harm will come to mankind.

You could yet astonish the world.

(VAN HELSING STRUGGLING)

(GASPS)

I'm tired of your temporizing, demon.

Do what you have promised me.

(FRANKENSTEIN EXCLAIMS)

CREATURE: So it shall be to all near those you.

Look upon him, Frankenstein.

Look upon your work.

(SOBBING)

Do not weep.

I have learned that skill.

It brings no solace.

(SOBBING)

(EXHALES)

SIR MALCOLM: None of these are Mina.

She's not here.

(SCREECHING)

(SNARLING)

(g*nsh*t)

(SCREECHES)

(SNARLING)

(g*nshots CONTINUE)

(MOANS)

(VANESSA MOANS)

(MOANS)

(GROWLS)

(SNARLING)

Father!

Mina!

No!

Father!

Mina!

(MOANING)

(GRUNTING)

DEMONIC VOICE: Hello, my child.

I've been waiting.

What games we will have now.


(PANTING LOUDLY)

(DOOR OPENS)

(DOOR CLOSES)

(PANTING)

(BELL TOLLING)

Uh...

We'll find her again.

Will we?

At least you know she's alive.

Is that what you call it?

Let me tell you something, pal.

You're pretty g*dd*mn sure you know what's going on all the time.

My father's the same.

He just stands above everything and moves all the little toy soldiers around.

Touched as I am by your childhood recollections, what's your point?

There are things you can't control.

There are battles you lose.

At the end of the day, the only thing we have is the people we trust.

Like Miss Ives.

And you trust her?

I do.

And you better start doing the same, or get ready to lose a lot of battles.

(DOOR OPENS)

(DOOR CLOSES)

SIR MALCOLM: Vanessa, I have a lot to tell you.

I haven't been honest with you about...
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